BitMine’s Tom Lee: ETH Is in the Final Stages of a Mini Crypto Winter

BitMine chairman Tom Lee says the company believes Ethereum (ETH) is in the “final stages” of a mini-crypto winter.

He noted that the firm has sustained an elevated rate of ETH purchases over the past three weeks. 

“In the past week, we acquired 65,341 ETH compared to an average of 45k to 50k weekly prior to that,” Lee stated.

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The chairman also pointed to ETH’s 18% rally since the Iran war began. The second-largest cryptocurrency outperformed equities by 2,450 basis points. 

Meanwhile, gold, traditionally a safe-haven asset, fell by more than 15%. He argued that crypto is proving itself as a credible “good wartime store of value” during geopolitical conflict.

On the regulatory front, Lee flagged the Clarity Act’s advancing progress through Congress. Prediction markets like Polymarket are pricing a greater than 68% chance of passage before year-end. 

“This is a positive fundamental catalyst for ethereum. And another reason probabilities favor the crypto winter as being largely behind us,” Lee added.

BitMine is the world’s largest corporate holder of ETH, with 4.66 million tokens, or 3.86% of the supply. Besides ETH, the company also holds 196 BTC, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, a $95 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and $1.1 billion in cash. BitMine’s total holdings now stand at $11 billion.

ETH traded at $2,138 at press time, up 3.6% in 24 hours following news that President Donald Trump had paused planned strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. 

Ethereum (ETH) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets

However, Iran has disputed Trump’s characterization of the talks. Whether the geopolitical conditions sustain the rally remains an open question for ETH bulls and for BitMine’s thesis that the downturn may be ending.

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